The time to TakeClimatechange action is now!

The Rudd government's Climate change policies may well have started with the usual fanfare of election promises during 2007 and the signing of the Kyoto protocol last year - to the applause of most of the western world - but the abysmal carbon reduction targets of 5% are have been a cause of deep concern and a source of fiery anger to many Australians around the country. On 3 February this year, more than 2,500 Australians connected to more than 150 organisations, groups and NGO's encircled Parliament House during a weekend of climate action.

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Distinguished anger

Highly critical voices about Australia's Emissions Trading Scheme and its targets came not just from Prof Ross Garnaut - the government's ETS advisor - but also from United States former vice-president Al Gore, the head of the UN's Nobel-winning scientific panel Dr Rajendra Pachauri, and the former World Bank chief Nicholas Stern, who wrote "The Stern Report" for the British government; while Prof James Hansen(NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies) wrote an open letter expressing his concerns about Australia and its coal production and exports to US President Barack Obama.

Carbon Lobby hostages*

At the April 2008 Canberra 2020 Summit's climate change section, Australia's powerful mining companies and coal producers were fully represented while the organiser and "chief inviter", Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, did not invite more than one or two people from amongst the hundreds of sustainability organisations - not even the State-based agencies.

This gigantic and wealthy lobbying machine, openly declared to be a form of "undue pressure" on government by Prof Ross Garnaut since he released his Interim Report, followed by the Draft Report before the Final Report, combines with the impish carbon reduction targets of 5% to 15% to make it almost impossible to transform Australia's economy into a 'post-carbon economy'.

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Polluting Solar Cells

Households, small businesses and industrial operators who start generating their own 'green power' with the help of solar cells may then well get a government subsidy for buying and installing these solar arrays, but when they come good on contributing to Australia's post-carbon society, the dirty power companies will be able to cash in more free permits to pollute. This is not just a bizarre situation, but an offense to those who do their bit for a better world with no pollution!

The low settings of Australia's carbon reduction targets, combined with what may well be Labor's ongoing "fear to be wedged" by its conservative opposition party, and the careful nature of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, may well have resulted in a serious underestimation of the massive pressure - if not bullying - applied to our government by Australia's powerful polluting "old-style" industries.

Now that the draft policy paper has been released and three parliamentary inquiries into the policy are being established (Senator Penny Wong will establish a Senate Economics Committee Inquiry, the newly announced Greens and Coalition Senate Inquiry, and an Inquiry by the Parliamentary Committee on Fuels and Energy), your voice can become part of this process by using our direct letter-writing campaign platform.

Now is the time for civil action in this matter ... click the button to explore and send your letter:

Thanks again for your support - and please stay involved with our campaigns!

Donating to us

At Project SafeCom we're experiencing our own forms of "climate change", and we've been buffeted by the "localised global financial crisis": many people have discontinued their action since the demise of the Howard government, and we're feeling it sharply also in our accounts.

While amazing work was performed in the last seven years by thousands of ordinary Australians, the Rudd government's climate change policies provide ample evidence for the need to continue many civil action campaigns. We hope we can count on your ongoing support, also expressed with your financial support. Click through to our website here to find our donation and account details.

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